Firms helping kit out new warships (From Business in Dorset)

Firms helping kit out new warships

7:00am Friday 10th July 2009

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POOLE and Wimborne could look on proudly earlier this week at a steel cutting ceremony for the Royal Navy’s new Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers.

Aeronautical & General Instruments Ltd (AGI) of Poole and Cobham Plc of Wimborne have secured £12m of work as sub-contractors on the Navy’s largest ever warships, which will be assembled at Rosyth Dockyard in Fife.

The carriers will operate the new Joint Strike Fighter aircraft to project military power worldwide and should enter service between 2014 and 2016.

Costing £3.9 billion, the two ships weigh 65,000 tonnes each and carry 40 aircraft.

That makes them nearer the size of giant United States aircraft carriers than of the smaller, 22,000 tonne Invincible-class aircraft carriers currently serving with the Royal Navy.

AGI, which is based off Holes Bay Road and has been trading for 94 years, has secured a £7m contract to develop and fit the Visual Landing Aids that help aircraft land at night or in difficult weather conditions.

And Wimborne based defence giant Cobham is supplying the key Air Traffic Control system for the ship in a £5m contract.

First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Jonathon Band said: “These ships are not just spare airfields, they are an instrument of national power; the ‘big stick’ which can be waved by the government in areas of strategic interest to influence, coerce and deter.”

Secretary of State for Defence Bob Ainsworth added: “We also must not forget the ongoing work of legions of people in industry across the UK, all delivering vital elements of this truly national project.”

The ships will be built in sections across the UK each of which will be transported to Rosyth dockyard where they will be joined together to form the hull of the ship.

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